The king of the Arctic’s speech: Coca-Cola’s polar bears talk in Ridley Scott film

Coca-Cola first used a polar bear in a French ad for the refreshing beverage in 1922, and the now-iconic mascot appeared sporadically in print advertising for more than 70 years. Then, in 1993, the polar bears made their television debut with a spot in which a dozen or so Ursidae sip on Cokes while watching their version of a movie: the Northern Lights. The fluffy, friendly animals have served as a cornerstone to the soda’s marketing campaigns ever since.

“Polar bears are a great symbol for family and for ice-cold refreshment,” said Katie Bayne, president of North America brands for the Coca-Cola North America Group at Variety’s Massive Ad Summit last month. “They are part of our brand, part of our history.”

Since that first TV commercial, the Coca-Cola bears have gone sledding, lugged a Christmas tree to their snowy cave, danced to the Beach Boys with penguins, played catch with a sea lion, ice-skated with Santa Claus and watched the Super Bowl. During the 2012 game, they actually reacted to what was going on on the field, including “falling asleep during the Pepsi spots.”

What they haven’t done is talk. Until now.

“The challenge was, so where do we take it from here?” Bayne said.

The company teamed with CAA Marketing, producer Ridley Scott and director John Stevenson (“Kung Fu Panda”) to create a seven-minute film in which a family of polar bears learns to embrace diversity and be themselves—with nary a soda in sight. They also talk for the first time in their nine-decade history.

The short debuted in Europe in January and has been traveling the world. Not only do the polar bears speak, Bayne said, “they actually speak many languages.”

It has played on television, in cinemas and online.

“Every market we take a slightly different approach how to use it,” Bayne said, “and what we’ve learned is … entertainment brings cultures together, and great entertainment ideas travel without you pushing them, and they galvanize good thinking on top of that for the business.”

Coca-Cola has a long history of partnering with Hollywood on its promotions. “Entertainment marketing for us has been center to all of our efforts since the 1930s,” Bayne said. “As we look at opportunities in entertainment marketing, whether they’re partnerships with celebrities or partnerships with film or television or content online, it’s figuring out how those things to connect with the strategies of our brand so that together we can synergistically build the entertainment property along with our brands.”

Bayne also cited Diet Coke’s new partnership with Taylor Swift and SmartWater’s playful campaign with Jennifer Aniston as further examples of the Coca-Cola Company collaborating with the entertainment industry.

No promotional Coke campaign comes “without a digital part,” Bayne added. “It is in the center.”

The polar bears film, for example, has drawn more than 2 million views on YouTube.

“[Your message] has to be shareable, it has to be engaging, so any idea that comes in the door, it starts with a digital lens for us,” she said.

But the idea has to be good. Even with billions of product packages in the marketplace, 69 million likes on Facebook and more than a million followers on Twitter, “if your idea isn’t good, it’s not shareable, and it’s not directly linked to the value of your brand or with the partnership that you’re involved in, it is going to flop,” Bayne said. “People won’t share it, people won’t engage.”